**Transformations from FAT to FIT** Part 2

[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/29or98z.jpg[/IMG]

Frame of reference:
- Left: 13 yrs old, 5'5'' ~190 lbs
- Middle: 14 yrs old, 5'5'' ~145 lbs
- Right: 23 yrs old, 6'1'' ~195 lbs

My initial 45 lb weight loss occurred over a span of 4 months during my freshman year in high school. It's a shame I waited so long to start lifting seriously (since last summer), but better late than never. Not sure what my BF% is now, but I think my long-term goal is to be roughly the same weight I am now, probably somewhere between 190-195 lbs at 10-12% BF.

[QUOTE=MeFromG;1358728351]You are a cutie in those last two photos. I wish you good luck on your second journey now :). Make it happen, steadily, slowly and in a healthy way.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. That really means a lot. :D

[QUOTE=ArcangelParagon;1357542401]Hi everyone. Completely new to this forum and this is my first post. Very inspirational thread. I'm surprised by a lot of the transformations here and I hope you guys keep it up.

I actually haven't. I initially went from 235 lbs. to 157 lbs. I kept this up for 2 years, but a TON of stressful family stuff happened that I'd rather not share, but I stopped working out for 8 months and overate, and next thing I knew, I gained ~40 lbs. again. I attached my old transformation.


I'm closer to picture #2 again now, but I've learned my lesson. I'm confident I'll lose it again, and there's no way I'm letting go this time.[/QUOTE]

Hey man you look great in that last pic @ 157lbs - all the best on your journey back there. Just a quick qn: what's your height?

Care to share how long it took you to go from 235->157, and roughly what was your diet (e.g. calories) / routine (e.g. type of lifting / cardio) - thanks!

[QUOTE=plutoainaplanet;1359145661]Hey man you look great in that last pic @ 157lbs - all the best on your journey back there. Just a quick qn: what's your height?

Care to share how long it took you to go from 235->157, and roughly what was your diet (e.g. calories) / routine (e.g. type of lifting / cardio) - thanks![/QUOTE]

Thanks! You're making really good progress too. 207 to 177 took me 22 weeks and you did it in half that time. (Although I did try to go slowly because I wanted to build muscle at the same time and I wanted to avoid having loose skin after.)

I'm 5'7". It took me ~9 months to go from 235 to ~170, long plateau and small break, and then ~3 months to go from ~180 to 157. (I let myself gain ~10 pounds on purpose, which I'll explain later.)

To be honest, my journey isn't really worth emulating because a lot of it was trial-and-error, and some of it was going too far (unnecessarily). (I posted this somewhere else before, but upon double checking, I guess I got some details wrong, so I corrected them here.)

For nutrition and exercise, I eased myself into both. I started just by swapping healthier ingredients in my meals and eating smaller portions but still eating the same things. Something like mushroom and bell pepper omelet for breakfast, garden salad with grilled chicken breast for lunch, and brown rice with stir fried vegetables for dinner. Drank whey protein shakes to meet 1g protein/1lb LBM. I wish I can tell you calories, but I don't have that info anymore. I used an app called MyNetDiary to track my calories and all that stuff is in a phone I no longer have. It's an awesome app though. I pretty much just made sure to stay ~200 calories below what they recommended to account for calculation errors.

At the gym, I was a total noob, so I just messed around with the machines and alternated between 1 mile on treadmill or elliptical, going about 3 times a week for about a month. After learning how to do enough exercises and coming up with a full body routine (3x10 for each exercise), I started doing said routine for up until I got to ~190 pounds. (Pushups, pull-ups [although I didn't try this one until week 19], chest press, triceps extension, leg extension, lat pulldowns, should press, leg press, seated row, deltoid flys, bicep curl, leg curl, crunches. During that first month, I only did 4 exercises per day.) I was gradually increasing in reps/weight. As I started to learn more exercises or routines from Youtube, I started adding a shorter but more intense targeted routine at the end of the full body one (or sometimes in the morning before I go to work). (For example, HasFit's 10 minute leg workout.)

After getting to ~190 pounds (and hitting a small plateau) I switched things up by eating much lighter. Something like a meal replacement shake (and a banana & peanut butter) for breakfast, a salad with grilled chicken for lunch, and Greek yogurt for dinner. Again, also drank whey protein. At this point, I also started doing a upper/lower body split (3x12), and started lifting with free weights over machines. The plateau only lasted for 2 weeks. (At this point, I made the mistake of thinking that since eating that much lighter worked, I stuck with it.)

At ~170 lbs. though, I hit a bigger plateau. I stayed there for about two months, even though I was mixing up my workouts. I took a month-long break (I was on vacation for a month) and let myself gain 10 lbs. (following someone's advice on how to break plateaus) eating a ton of brisket in Texas. After I got back, I lost the 10 lbs. in ten days (strict diet of Greek yogurt for ten days and doing 3 miles on the treadmill, then 1 hour on stationary bike or stairmaster everyday). I thought I could snowball into breaking the plateau like that guy had told me, but once I hit 170, I hit that plateau again.

Desperate to break through, I signed up for a boot camp fitness class (I took up swimming once it ended) and a fitness club (where they do one or two 30 min. workouts every other night). I did that on top of my own workouts at the gym. I also started running 3 miles for one day a week, eventually ramping it up to 3 miles every other day and then 6 miles on Sundays, and after a month, I increased it to 10 miles on Sundays. So I was doing three 3-workout days a week, 3 days just at the gym, and 6-10 miles on Sundays, hoping that working out a lot would break the plateau. It didn't really. Turns out, the problem wasn't the workout. If anything, it was part of the problem. As it turns out, I was undereating while overworking myself. So I started eating more during dinner, and snacking on Pure Protein bars and/or trail mix throughout the day.

I also refined my workouts (switched to 4x8, still on a 6-day upper/lower body split, and 6 miles on Sundays) using an awesome app called Jefit. I started seeing progress again and eventually, I got to 157 lbs. I was in the process of working on my chest and abs--which as you can tell from the pictures, were horribly lacking compared to my arms--when a ton of huge family and other personal problems came up (I essentially lost my job, my sister got sick and became homeless, I got injured pretty badly, etc.), and I had to deal with those things for 8 long months. I stopped working out altogether, and after the dust settled, I've found that I've gained ~40 pounds again, mainly from depression. I'm confident I can lose it again, but it's still disappointing to see all that progress disappear.

But thanks for the words of encouragement. This time around should be even easier now that I know what I was doing wrong. Best of luck to you as well.

[QUOTE=ArcangelParagon;1359417531]-snip-[/QUOTE]

Dude thank you for sharing your journey (the ups and downs) and the details on nutrition and your weightlifting + cardio routines, truly appreciate it.

About me for what its worth: currently I'm on SL 5x5 weight program and still seeing reasonable strength gains (have swapped Squats and Bench to 3x5 though). Since this week I have incorporated 20 minutes of cardio everyday too (alternating between jogging ~3.2km / rowing ~4.2km) in the hopes to increase my stamina slowly and to create an additional deficit. I'm also basically doing the greasing the groove method for pull-ups and have seen reasonable gains (from 1 in mid-February to 10 atm, hoping to break through my overall PR soon from about six years ago of 12 pull-ups). Calorie wise I am on 1500cals a day.

Looks like I will follow in your footsteps soon: switch to a hypertrophy routine around end-June and increase my cardio gradually to the distances / frequency you were running them.

Thanks again for the kind words man :)

nice

"23/01 - 207.2
24/02 - 192.5
02/03 - 191.8
09/03 - 190.7
16/03 - 189.2
23/03 - 186.1
30/03 - 184.3
06/04 - 184.1
13/04 - 180.8
20/04 - 179.7
27/04 - 177.0"


That's some fast weight loss. I think I went from 210 to around 173 from Mid September to about end February. Since then I kinda of quit any cutting due to work and now weight about 177-180 range, but I've gained a lot of muscle mass over past couple months at least. I'm also 5'11''. IDK if I could stick to 1500 though. I tend go go for around 2000 per day, which I still lose weight with.

I suppose I should get back on better diet again and get down to around 165 which was my goal.

Amazing Transformation

Thanks such a great board!

Well i started out my journey at 216.8

Here I am sitting at 174. I had to take a short break due to a foot injury, but got myself back down to this weight, and am now starting up my weightlifting goals to keep my goals going. Pretty proud of where I am so far, but know I have a long way to go.

What's up FitFam! My name is Daniel Cribbs. This is a before and after of myself. It's been a long journey, but worth every second. Dedication and persistence are vital. Never give up, always push forward.

-Dan (coolguydsc21)

great job everyone

Whenever I'm feeling lazy and not motivated, I come to this thread. You guys kick ass and I see all the positive work you have done and it inspires me to keep going. Keep posting this thread is awesome!!

126 to 168 2year transformation
imageshack----.com----/i/id0eqwXpj (march26, 2013)

imageshack----.com----/i/hlAhj9k0j (April 27, 2015)

imageshack----.com----/i/id2bxYC8j (Most recent)
(DELETE DASHES TO SEE PICs)
IG: sebastian_jolly4813
Follow me on my journey to becoming ifbb
Just competed in my first comp and took 2nd!

Guyz little help over here. Im on a weight loss. My fat is not dense now. It shakes when i walk. And why is that ? How to overcome it ? I dont see a big diff. On scale now ? Is it because the fat is light weight ?

[QUOTE=TmdRockz;1360911751]Guyz little help over here. Im on a weight loss. My fat is not dense now. It shakes when i walk. And why is that ? How to overcome it ? I dont see a big diff. On scale now ? Is it because the fat is light weight ?[/QUOTE]

Your fat is like an organ. Hell, even your blood is an organ.

Anyway, point is that we have subcutaneous fat which is under our skin (the one we can pinch) and visceral fat which is deep around our organs which we can't really pinch and is worse for our health.
I can't tell which one you're referring to as I wouldn't expect dense fat to shake when you walk :/

Yes i know. I have lots of subcutaneous fat

Here is my transformation over the course of a year. I went from a fat out of shape lazy alcoholic to a now fit and in shape sober man! The skys the limit and I cant wait untill next year when I have more improvements to show on here.

[QUOTE=whereyoumaygo41;1360495111]Well i started out my journey at 216.8

Here I am sitting at 174. I had to take a short break due to a foot injury, but got myself back down to this weight, and am now starting up my weightlifting goals to keep my goals going. Pretty proud of where I am so far, but know I have a long way to go.[/QUOTE]
Keep up the great work! Be patient it takes time and discipline!

[QUOTE=dgueguen1;1360968811]Here is my transformation over the course of a year. I went from a fat out of shape lazy alcoholic to a now fit and in shape sober man! The skys the limit and I cant wait untill next year when I have more improvements to show on here.[/QUOTE]

good progress mate

Progress is progress... I'm not losing weight as quickly as I wanted, but I am recomping and CANNOT complain about that!

My lean body mass is up by 5 pounds, overall weight down by 40 pounds.

Bigger arms, shoulders, lats & smaller love handles! September 2014 on left, Today on right.
[IMG]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k629/stev0n/STEV0N/Pictures/AEE8576F-70FB-478B-B42D-45D9F0B43AE2.jpg?t=1430871678[/IMG]

[QUOTE=TmdRockz;1360911751]Guyz little help over here. Im on a weight loss. My fat is not dense now. It shakes when i walk. And why is that ? How to overcome it ? I dont see a big diff. On scale now ? Is it because the fat is light weight ?[/QUOTE]

I've had this same thing happen, especially in my belly. It feels like the fat is thinner/less firm. While there is still a whole lot of it, I can prod with my fingers & feel my abs underneath from where it's thinned out.

[QUOTE=whereyoumaygo41;1360495111]Well i started out my journey at 216.8

Here I am sitting at 174. I had to take a short break due to a foot injury, but got myself back down to this weight, and am now starting up my weightlifting goals to keep my goals going. Pretty proud of where I am so far, but know I have a long way to go.[/QUOTE]
Damn! That's great progress so far!

[QUOTE=plutoainaplanet;1359453261]Dude [...] [/QUOTE]

I keep hearing that cardio is not that good for weight loss. Sounds like a great plan though. Best of luck. Thanks again.

[QUOTE=TmdRockz;1360911751]Guyz little help over here. Im on a weight loss. My fat is not dense now. It shakes when i walk. And why is that ? How to overcome it ? I dont see a big diff. On scale now ? Is it because the fat is light weight ?[/QUOTE]

When losing fat that happens to your belly beacuse now there is water where fat was. You need to wait for the body to do its shiet, and yes you have less weight than the scale indicates when that is happening. If you want it to happen faster somebody said to drink alot of water, havent tried that myself tho.

Amazing
So inspirational
Thanks!

some incredible transformations here!!

well done to each and every person here, this stuff is truly inspirational

This thread really is a huge motivation for me. You guys and gals should be so proud of your progress. Truly great stuff.

Awesome transformations everyone! Seriously, I love looking through this thread; it motivates the hell outta me.

I said I'd re-post when I start cutting a few pounds; currently I am down about 7 lbs from my highest weight during my bulk of 196 lbs; I plan on losing roughly 5 more before the lean bulk begins again.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of me at 196 lbs, the 7 lbs down would be much more obvious than my last picture at 192 lbs lol; nevertheless, I know I'm making progress.

As you can see, I've got loose skin in the lower stomach; it is [b]slowly[/b] improving, but still something that bothers me.

[B][/B]
[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/i43ak1.jpg[/IMG]


Current (5/9/15) - Just finished running, thus the shine lol --- [b]189 lbs[/b]
[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/ild85v.jpg[/IMG]

Well done to every one who has made such amazing progress. After finding this thread a year or two ago it's been my inspiration to take exercise and diet seriously. I hope to be at a level where I can share photos of my progress one day.